New York state on verge of landing $8B health care infusion

The federal government is a step closer to granting New York state a Medicaid waiver that’s expected to add some $8 billion to the state’s medical system.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the state would like to direct much of that money to Brooklyn, where it would be used to shore up a hospital crisis in which Long Island College Hospital and Interfaith Medical Center are on the cusp of closing. However, the federal government is wary of allowing Medicaid money to be spent in that way, the report said, which appears to be the last obstacle for state and federal hurdles to negotiate before final approval.

As the New York Times put it, federal officials’ have reasoned that Medicaid money ought not act as a hospital bailout and, instead, ought to be used to reduce hospitalizations in the first place. To that point, the Times said, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a steady proponent of keeping those hospitals open, appears to have hedged somewhat in his advocacy, allowing himself political space to keep the hospitals open, but as outpatient facilities only.

For his part, Gov. Andrew Cuomo promised to use the money to “transform” health care, but he also said the waiver would help the state run its public health insurance exchange, which Capital New York pointed out is odd because the exchange is funded through a totally different mechanism. A spokesperson told Capital New York that Cuomo misspoke.